November 8, 2014

On Saturday afternoon, November 8, Dr. Paul Pearson, the director and archivist of the Thomas Merton Center located at Bellarmine University in Louisville, Kentucky, gave a talk in our abbey school’s Reid Auditorium on the topic of Merton’s humor. As title of his lecture, Dr. Pearson chose a quotation from that well-known monk: “I love beer, and, by that very fact, the world.” The presentation was sponsored by the Washington, DC chapter of the International Thomas Merton Society. The chapter’s director, Ms. Maryle Ashley, is here shown with Dr. Pearson after his lecture. The forty persons in attendance were urged to consider attending a major conference at the center in Louisville next June, commemorating the 100th anniversary of Merton’s birth.